Prevent the need for including quotes for keys in json files?

Question

I have a very large JSON data file that I am including in my program. The format of the file looks like this:

{
  "2":{"x":0,"y":0,"w":16,"h":16},
  "3":{"x":5,"y":9,"w":7,"h":12},
  "4":{"x":2,"y":5,"w":12,"h":11},
  ...
}

And I include it like so:

import * as colliders from "../assets/colliders.json";

The issue is that it seems to require the use of quotes in the keys. That is, if I try to instead make the data file formatted like such (no quotes):

{
  2:{x:0,y:0,w:16,h:16},
  3:{x:5,y:9,w:7,h:12},
  4:{x:2,y:5,w:12,h:11},
  ...
}

Then I get the following error when compiling my Typescript:

Error TS1327: String literal with double quotes expected.

I could just force there to be quotes, but it increases the file size by 33% or so. I'd prefer if I didn't have to include the quotes in the JSON file. Is this possible? Or is it better practice to keep the quotes despite the file size increase?

Answer 1

You could make the file not a .json file, but a JavaScript or TypeScript file, and do something like:

// colliders.ts
export const colliders = {
  2:{x:0,y:0,w:16,h:16},
  3:{x:5,y:9,w:7,h:12},
  4:{x:2,y:5,w:12,h:11},
  // ...
}

import { colliders } from "../assets/colliders.ts";

But the extra space required by key delimiters is still almost certainly not something to worry about in a real application.

Answer 2

If you really really care about space, and given that it seems that you always have the same columns (X, Y, W, H), I would store all the colliders inside a CSV file, then create a routine to read the file and build a JSON in memory from it.

(I am not sure if you can access to the file system in your code, but that would be the direction in which I would be headed).